Managing rights in digitized indigenous music

It was beneath the old acacia tree where the community elders meet that Ole Kaunga and Ole Tingoi turned to me back in 2006 with an idea that could help the Maasai people of East Africa open up a modern-day revenue stream. “Let’s build a library of our music and sell it online,” Ole Kaunga said. “Like iTunes.”

And so began an ambitious partnership that seeks to deliver concrete benefits to the community through recording, archiving and commercializing Maasai music and other cultural expressions.